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Which mac?
Cracked the screen on my iPad Pro. The cost of replacement is a hell of a lot and I’m somewhat disillusioned with iOS anyway so I think I want to go back to having a pc as my circumstances have changed since I went iOS only (ex made me sell everything and kicked me out of my studio) but I’m now living on my own again with a music space in my home.
I don’t know what my budget for a pc is yet but I want to keep it as low as posssible..
I’m thinking about going down the mac and Logic Pro x route but I’ve no idea which Mac to get.
Everywhere I read recommends at least 16gb ram but most new iMac and MacBooks only come with 8 unless you upgrade.. do I really need 16? Would you get a new Mac or would you buy second hand and if you went second hand what age would you look for that is going to keep up for a few years?
I rarely go over 30 tracks, probably usually 50% midi 50% audio and I’m fully aware of freezing/bouncing ect..
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iMacs have user upgradable RAM, so see how you get on with 8, and put another 8 in if you need it.
My MacBook Pro only has 8, and I run Live, Maschine, Reason and Logic on it ok, though I tend to record MIDI onto audio tracks.
For the planning for the future, 16gb is the way to go with a new computer. MacBookPro is more portable so while more expensive up front, better investment imo.
The best cost to features option is actually Mac Mini if you don't want something portable and have a monitor already or are willing to buy one.
I recently went with a Mac Mini (2018, w/ top tier cpu) as my dedicated music box. (Switched from an all purpose Win 10 desktop) Been a wonderful experience so far — My only regret is that I should have went with with the base 8gb RAM and bought 16gb aftermarket to install myself ..would have saved $100 or so over the Apple tax.
The magic trackpad 2 I picked up with it has also been a huge step up in efficiency (and less painful) than using a mouse for hours at a time. I figure it’ll also come in handy when Mac OS is updated with their planned iOS app compatibility layer. That’ll be a dream to use all the great iOS instruments and effects alongside Logic or Mac Ableton
(though macOS already has excellent native support for using iPad or iPhones as a midi/Audio interface)
Does it have to be a Mac? That doesn’t seem the most ideal investment if trying to save money. That said, if going that route, a Mac mini may be worth considering. Give up the portability of an mbp (several of which are suffering hardware issues) to save some money and still have a good Mac. If you do get an mbp, get one with 16gb if you can since I don’t believe it’s possible to upgrade the ram yourself.
I have a 2015 mbp w/16gb and don’t see a need to upgrade anytime soon (will upgrade my 7 yr old pc instead).
Just ordered a Mac mini - The ram is upgradeable to 64 - but for the 2018 it's supposed to be upgraded in the Apple store - and they will only do that if the original ram is still there - Upgrade or install memory in your Mac mini. It's a great deal spec-wise compared to the iMac - especially if you have your own displays. You can also upgrade the ethernet to 10GB, and it has Bluetooth 5. If you have a .edu affiliation of any sort you can purchase that way with some good discounts - the mini wasn't shown on the .edu page, but the pricing is available, and was just updated last week for the new school year. You also get 4 TB-3 ports, whereas I think the iMac has only 2. And you can add an eGPU if the built in Intel UHD 630 graphics don't meet your needs.
For making music, a cheap and powerful second-hand Windows laptop can be had for under $200. There is only little reason to get a much more expensive Mac. Make sure you get one with an SSD already installed.
I'm on both platforms and each has its advantages, but there is so much great freeware available on Windows that all you need other than that would be an audio/midi interface and a keyboard controller or whatever instrument you're using.
Make sure the single-thread CPU performance is high enough, this is the most important performance number when it comes to using software instruments.
You can find it on https://www.cpubenchmark.net/.
I would not recommend to choose a CPU below the 1,500 mark.
How much RAM you need totally depends on what virtual instruments you're going to use.
Using softsynths and high polyphony requires CPU power, using large sampled instrument libraries require RAM or alternatively a fast SSD.
@extnctn6 - since you mentioned ram & Logic - this support article About dynamic plug-in loading in Logic Pro X might be worth a look.
Good luck!
if you can live without logic get a secondhand Window's laptop for 200 euro and stuff it with RAM and add a huge SSD drive.
Its cheaper to buy a mac than cheap windows and hair implants to replace the ones you pulled out trying to make it work properly xD ofc you could get some cheap second hand wig..
I have a PC and it is most definitely cheaper than a mac, however I do not know the links between using windows and baldness ;-)
lol
Ack! Thanks for the info, but too late for me.
.> @AudioGus said:
I do suspect the percentage of audiobus members cursed with baldness to be high.
May or may not matter to you but just a heads up....I recently bought a new imac and was sorry to learn many vst’s do not support retina display. Having a beautiful screen only to display slightly pixilated gui’s sucked.
Do your homework.
To help you start:
Ableton, Serum, Finite,
Fabfilter DO support.
Native Instruments, Reason, Sound Toys
Do NOT
IOS gui’s are way ahead.
Sugar Bytes are not
But honestly I don't really care, the only place where I insist on high resolution is pdf reading, wave editing and photos.
I got a 2012 Mac mini (i7 quad core, 2.6 ghz, 8gb ram, SSD) for around $600 about a year ago, for running Logic X in a little home studio. It is great. I got it because the specs were better than the 2014, which only came with a gimpy processor. You really want the quad core, whatever it is, to not choke on big music projects with a bunch of plugins. It has all usb 3 ports, so you can use a usb 3 hub for a bunch of accessories and not have things bottleneck.
2.5” SSD’s got a lot cheaper recently. You could potentially find one with a mechanical hard drive, and swap it for say, a 512gb ssd, and save some money. Could get a $25 usb 3 enclosure for the old hard drive and use it for time machine backups.
The only thing it doesn’t do is run a 4K monitor. There are plenty of big 2560x1440 DisplayPort monitors out there, and you can run a second 1080p monitor off the hdmi port. Much better for a permanent setup, than a laptop, for the monitor situation.
The new minis are pretty bangin’. But you don’t need a monster computer for music production, audio stuff just isn’t that intensive, unlike video, and cad work. Could put that money toward a good audio interface.
2012 Mac mini’s are a pretty good investment. If you go for the i5 version you can get them as low as around $200 US. The i5 versions are all the same really. I got 8GB ram and 500Gb HD for $245 after shipping in January. You also get a FireWire port and it will get the next MacOS too.
I could have gotten less as I switched out for 16GB ram and an SSD straight away. It’s easy to do yourself. You absolutely want to get an SSD in it. It ended up just under $400 in the end, now I have spare ram and hard drive though.
I haven’t used for music yet though. The processor will definitely be my limitation. I’m debating buying Logic. I’ve been busy and Im so used to iOS I’ve just been using that.
If you're used to IOS then 8GB will seem like heaven. Watch videos to add memory and look for the lowest cost RAM you can add. Buying used or refurb will also reduce the need to insure Apple isn't upset with you over using random parts.
The Mini with a 3rd party monitor will save you big buck and you will also find suitable disks, ssds you can add.
Logic Pro X is the industry standard for Pro home studios these days. Just be careful about coveting plug-ins or you'll quickly spend a lot more. If you keep shopping on pure price you'll save over the Apple "new" product costs. As far as I'm concerned Apple gives away Logic at $200 and you'll just need to get OS X with your purchase to be covered for support and stability... assuming you don't get any flakey parts but look for returnable products to insure everything works.
Putting computers together is really not rocket science. MacBooks can also be upgraded with newer better parts so a used/refurbed MacBook is another option and save the extra fees for monitors.
Or you can get a special mounting kit and make it your second internal drive:
https://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Ntk=Primary&Ns=P_Popularity|1&Ne=5000&N=100369&Ntt=data+doubler
I did that, very nice to have a second large drive for sample storage inside
It isn't possible with more recent Mac Minis though.
what do you guys know about this one?
https://www.notebookcheck.net/Huawei-MateBook-D-14-W00D-Ryzen-5-RX-Vega-8-Laptop-Review.421133.0.html
here's a crosspost about it from gearslutz
"in my experience, ryzens may well do great things with dsp, soft synths and vstis. Picked up a new huawei matebook ryzen 5/4 core for $480us - its free of win 10 bloat ware, rock solid, touch screen.
For vsti's it wipes the floor and slaughters an expensive macbook pro 4 core - a macbook i had for a day and returned due to vsti crashes and thermal throttling issues; and that laughable mac book touch bar gimmick .
The matebook 10 touch screen is perfect for roland cloud vstis. I can run like 8-10 roland cloud plugins in ableton without a hitch or crash so far @ 50% cpu. the Arturia Buchla Easel, a notoriously high cpu vsti, runs in full poly at 20-25% "
only $480 I'm tempted
The performance of this Ryzen CPU is quite average, you get better performance at lower power consumption with recent Intel i5/i7 "U" model CPUs, in about the same price range.
For the above CPU figures, be careful how they have been measured.
If the percentage is an average over all cores, this tells you nothing about its suitability for audio performance.
I’d definitely recommend 16gb, I do lots of complex MIDI processing, audio FX and routing in Ableton Live and even at 16gb and and i7 MBP I’m sometimes right up against the limits.
okidoki thanks